Let Your Personality Be Your Guide

Jennifer Fry
Careerminds Consultant

New college students and even recent graduates often use personality tests and aptitude tests to find direction towards the right major or the right career for them, but this method is not limited to students. Any job seeker can benefit from learning more about themselves and what professional roles and environments suit them best. An entirely different career may not be in order for a job seeker in transition, but with the help of a personality indicator, such as the reknowned Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), one may be steered toward the most appropriate companies for his/her type, for instance. Large companies with hundreds or employees and set corporate policies and schedules may be more suitable for certain types, whereas smaller more personal environments that allow greater freedom on the job may be a better fit for others.

Four components combine to create a person’s MBTI type:

• introversion/extroversion: based on Carl Jung’s description of how people interact with the worlds both outside and inside themselves. Introverts prefer the inner world, whereas extroverts prefer the outer.

• sensing/intuition: descriptive of the kind of information people naturally notice. Sensors focus more on what is, what can be seen, heard, etc., and intuitives focus more on what could be, reading between the lines.

• thinking/feeling: concerned with the way people make decisions and reach conclusions. Thinkers decide based more on logic, while feelers decide based more on how much they care or what they feel is right.

• judging/perceiving: descriptive of the way in which people lived according to structure or lack thereof. Judgers live in a more orderly way, preferring greater structure, whereas perceivers live with greater spontaneity, preferring flexibility.

An individual’s natural behaviors indicate his/her inclination towards one end of each of these four spectrums– a person is naturally more introverted than extroverted, for example, or more perceiving than judging. Once each component is determined by means of an MBTI assessment, one type out of sixteen possible types is identified (i.e.: introversion, sensing, feeling, judging, or ISFJ).

According to The Myers & Briggs Foundation, the MBTI can help you understand a number of personal preferences and qualities and how they relate to your work habits. For instance, your type can be indicative of your time management methods, your problem solving and decision making skills, and your preferred means of dealing with stress, all of which affect the way in which you work. Once you’ve determined your type, you can better predict how you’ll react to different corporate cultures, participation as a part of a team, changes in the workplace and the need to develop new skills, among other things.

With consideration for the ways in which you behave naturally, reflected in your MBTI type, you will be better able to assess a possible employer and work environment, considering how you will fit into the workplace and/or how the workplace will fit with you. In the end, you can use your knowledge of your type and your ideal working habits to find the right job, one that will keep you happy and energized coming into the office each morning; one that will leave you feeling proud of your accomplishments; and one that will fulfill your personal and professional needs, as well as those of your employer.

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Careerminds provides scalable, strategic solutions to organizations seeking affordable, web-based outplacement services. Using a Web 2.0 e-learning platform that delivers affordable, online career transition services, Careerminds provides a high-tech and high-touch blend of on-demand career transition education supported by senior-level career consultants to help displaced workers reenter the workforce quickly.